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MAETYRS 



TO THE REVOLUTION 



IN. THE 



BEITISH PRISON-SHIPS 



IN THE 



WALLABOUT BAY. 






X \%2jO ^ 




N E\A^- Y O R K: 

W. H. ARTHUR & CO., STATIONERS, 

No. 39 NASSAU-STREET. 
MjDCCCLV. 



INTRODUCTION 



The truth has recently found notice, that there has been 
gathered beneath no monumental pile, the dust of those hundreds 
upon hundreds of our fathers, who, by their heroic patriotism 
and daring love of liberty, were impelled, in the great crisis in 
our country's history, to serve in our then infant navy ; and 
who, through British cruelty, were sacrificed to the sacred cause 
of that Revolution, in prison-ships in the Wallabout Bay ! The 
fact has come to engage attention, that, for seventy-five years, 
Americans have reaped, in almost thoughtless joy, their harvests 
of gold, from a soil, the producing vigor of which is in the 
ashes of those martyrs, without the wonderful truths connected 
with their inheritance adequately resting in their understandings, 
and with no worthy degree of gratitude expressed, in written 
record or enduring memorial, of those who thus, for the end set 
before them — the good and glory of their country — counted not 
their lives dear unto them ! 

Upon the shores of the Wallabout, in the sands of which lie 
whatever is unscattered of the remains of those worthies, a 
movement has begun, designed to redeem the obligation, with 



iV INTRODUCTION. 

respect to them, which neglect in the past has entailed upon this 
generation. Americans associated, in the County of Kings, by 
representation in a Convention, sought and obtained needed in- 
formation in the premises, and have formed and organized a 
Board of Direction, to act efficiently in this great interest. At 
their instance, George Taylor, Esq., of the City of Brooklyn, 
prepared, and furnished for such use as might be deemed best to 
subserve the undertaking, the Address which these remarks are 
intended by the Committee on Publication to introduce. 



BEJTISH PRISON-SHIPS. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

The story of the Prisons in the City of 
New- York, and of the Prison-Ships in the 
Whallabocht Bay, during the war for our In- 
dependence, is the darkest in the history of 
our Revolutionary struggle. War, at all 
times dreadful, here assumed its most fearful 
character. Occasional acts of inhumanity 
and cowardly brutality, committed in the 
heat of battle, when the thirst for blood is 
whetted by its indulgence, may be excused, 
as the temporary triumph of passion and 
vengeance over reason and humanity; but 
for the cold, calculating cruelty, regularly 
adopted, and steadily pursued towards our 
unfortunate countrymen, there was no ex- 
cuse. The voice of civilization and human- 



6 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

ity cried out against it ; and the results 
proved that an insulted Providence frowned 
upon it with fearful indignation. 

Savage nations sometimes put their pris- 
oners to death ; but this has never been 
openly practiced by the civilized nations of 
the earth. The custom of the cultivated 
nations of antiquity, of selling their prison- 
ers into slavery, met the most positive re- 
probation in the beginning of the Feudal 
Ages; and the system of ransom which was 
then adopted, yielded, early in the Seven- 
teenth Century, to the more liberal and hu- 
mane policy of exchange of prisoners under 
cartels. Until that exchange took place, 
the law of nations, as well as the principles 
of humanity, required the belligerent parties 
to provide proper accommodations for their 
prisoners, and to supply them with healthy 
food, and, in case of sickness, with proper 
medical attendance. How England observ- 
ed these rules, in the case of our imprisoned 
countrymen, the civilized nations of the 
world may judge. 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 7 

The battle of Brooklyn, and the capture 
of Fort Washington, in the fall of 1776, 
put the British in possession of nearly four 
thousand prisoners ; and by the arrest of 
citizens supposed to sympathize with the 
patriots, they soon increased the number to 
Jive thousand. Our enemies were now com- 
pelled to adopt the system of parole, or to 
turn all the public and other large buildings 
in New- York into prisons for their recep- 
tion. Their feelings of humanity, as well 
as their cowardly policy, led them to adopt 
the latter course ! The churches, and sugar- 
houses, and prisons, were crowded with the 
unfortunate patriots to such an extent, in 
some instances, that there was not space for 
them to He down to rest. And among them, 
they threw their own criminals^ vile wretches 
gathered from the purlieus of their large 
cities, as if they were fit associates for 
men whose only crime had been love of 
country and of liberty. But this moral pes- 
tilence did not suffice to gratify their 
malice ; for into these crowded prisons they 



8 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

scattered the seeds of disease and death. 
The prisoners were poorly fed, on worm-eaten 
bread, and peas, and putrid beef, which, not 
unfrequently, they were compelled to eat in 
its raw state ; and the more surely to accom- 
plish the objects contemplated, those sick 
with small-pox and infectious fevers were left 
among them unattended, without medicines 
to relieve them, or water to cool their parch- 
ed lips. Denied the hght and air of heaven, 
and starved by their inhuman keepers, and 
broken-hearted by the supplications and 
groans of their distressed kindred and coun- 
trymen, they sickened and died, and were 
thrown hke dogs into their native soil, unless 
it happened to be the good pleasure of Cun- 
ningham, their infamous jailer, to march 
them out under the cover of midnight dark- 
ness, to the gallows and the grave. " The 
mode of these private executions was thus 
conducted," says the miserable wretch Cun- 
ningham, in his confession, at his own ex- 
ecution for crime soon after the close of the 
war : " a guard was dispatched from the Pro- 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 9 

vost, about half-past twelve at night, to the 
Barrack-street and the neighborhood of the 
upper barracks, to order the people to shut 
their window-shutters and put out their 
lights, forbidding them at the same time to 
presume to look out of their windows and 
doors on pain of death ; after which the un- 
fortunate prisoners were conducted, gagged, 
just behind the upper barracks, and hung 
without ceremony, and buried by the black 
pioneer of the Provost." In this manner, 
there were about two hundred and sixty 
American prisoners murdered without cause, 
and in violation of every law, human and 
Divine. 

While Cunningham was committing these 
horrid deeds, as a matter of private specula- 
tion or revenge, and by the orders of his 
superiors, other monsters were preparing the 
instruments of destruction on this side of the 
river. The vessels which they had previous- 
ly converted into prison-ships, at Gravesend 
Bay, were now removed to the Hudson and 
East Rivers, where they were anchored for 



10 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

the same purposes. The soldiers taken pris- 
oners on Long Island, and confined in these 
vessels, were transferred to the prisons in 
New-York, to make room for the marine 
prisoners, now rapidly accumulating. 

About the 20th day of October. 1776, the 

Whitby, a large transport, was removed to 

the Whallabocht Bay, and moored opposite 

Johnson's " Rcmscn's Mill," as shown on the map. She 

Account. '■ 

was the first prison-ship moored in the Whal- 
labocht, and was crowded with prisoners 
when she arrived. Many prisoners from the 
army, and citizens arrested on suspicion, 
were confined in her, which was not the case 
with the other prison-ships. The Whitby 
was said to be the most sickly of all the 
hulks. While this appears almost impossible, 
facts justify the assertion. She was the only 
prison-ship in the Bay until May, 1777; and 
during two months in the spring of that year 
the entire beach, between the ravine and 
Remsen's Dock, was filled with graves; and 
before the first day of May, the ravine itself 
was filled with the remains of the hundreds 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 11 

who died from pestilenccj or were starved to 
death in this dreadful prison. 

In May, 1777, two more ships were an- 
chored in the Whallaboeht* and the prisoners 
of the Whitby were transferred to them ; but 
the same causes made them ahnost as sickly 
as their predecessor. At this time, no ex- 
changes took phice, but death made room 
for the daily arrivals. On a Sunday after- 
noon, about the middle of October, 1777, one 
of these vessels was burnt, and many prison- 
ers perished in the flames. A second was 
consumed in February, 1778. These were 
succeeded by others — the Good Hope, Scor- 
pion, Prince of Wales, John, Falmouth, Hun- 
ter, Stromboh, and Old Jersey, all of wiiich 
were used in this disgraceful service. And 
in them thousands of our unfortunate coun- 
trymen suffered and died from the inhuman 
treatment received from the English. So 
great was their suffering, that they were in- 
duced to set fire to the ships, which were 
burnt, hoping thus either to secure their 
liberty, or hasten their death. 



Johnson's 
Account . 



n BEITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

" Better the greedy wave should swallow all, 
Better to meet the death-conducting ball, 
Better to sleep on ocean's oozy bed, 
At once destroyed and numbered with the dead, 
Than thus to perish in the face of day, 
Where twice ten thousand deaths one death delay." 

Freneau. 

While one of these ships was in flames, 
the prisoners were seen letting each other 
down from the port-holes and decks into the 
water. How many perished in the hulks is 
unknown, except to the All-knowing, who 
witnessed their sufferings, and registered 
their wrongs. 

But of all these terrible prison-ships, the 
Old Jeesey, the " Hell," as she was called, was 
the most notorious. She was originally a 
Account, gixty-four gun-ship, which had become unfit 
for actual service. After a battle with the 
French fleet, in which she was much in- 
jured, she was dismantled, her spars and rig- 
ging removed, and her figure-head taken to 
repair another ship. Thus, without orna- 
ment, an old, unsightly hulk, whose dark and 
filthy external appearance fitly represented 
the death and despair that reigned within. 



Andres's 
P 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 13 

she was anchored in April, 1778, in the 
Whallabocht Bay, for the reception of pris- 
oners, and to hide between her decks crimes 
too horrid for the eye of day — crimes which 
must forever remain a black spot and a shame 
on the pages of English history. 

For the purposes of a prison-ship, she was 
stripped of every thing warlike ; and the bow- 
sprit, which was used as a derrick for taking 
in supplies, was all that was left on deck. 
Her port-holes were closed and fastened, and 
four small holes, about twenty inches square, 
were cut in her sides for the admission of air. 
These holes, about ten feet apart, were 
secured by strong iron bars, crossing each 
other at rio^ht ano^les. While they " admit- -P""?'^ 

o c5 J iNarrative. 

ted the light by day, and served as breathing 
holes at night," their arrangement did not 
permit a free current of air between decks, 
where the prisoners were confined from sun- 
down to sun-rise, having little or no commu- 
nication with the upper deck during these 
dismal hours. 

Her position was nearly opposite the 



14 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

mouth of the old inill-race, and about three 
hundred yards from the shore. South-east 
of her, at the distances of two and three 
hundred yards, tlie Falconer, Good Hope, 
and Hunter, were anchored. These were 
called hospital-ships, but the sick were sel- 
dom removed to them, until past all hope of 
recovery, and then it was an ao^sravation, 
Narrative. ^^^^ ^ rcUef, to tlic uufortunatc sufferers. In 

Johnson's 

Account, fact, the idea of a hospital-ship was a mockery ; 
for the prisoners were suffered to sicken and 
die without the least sympathy or attention. 
The festering plague-spots, called hospital- 
ships, were kept upon the Bay probably for 
the sake of an historical record, but certain- 
ly not for the purposes of humanity. The Old 
Jersey was the receiving ship in this death- 
recruiting station, and the hospital-ships 
were the places where they were sowed up 
in blankets, preparatory to an honorable, but 
not very humane, discharge from the service. 
Sick or well, the prisoners were abandoned 

Aiidros, 

page 15 ^Q their fate. During the period of Andros's 
confinement, no English physician was seen 



BEITISH PEISON-SHIPS. 15 

on the hulks ; and others testify to the same 
cruel neglect. 

"All the most deadly diseases were pressed 
into the service of the king of terrors ; dys- 
entery, small-pox, and yellow-fever, acting 
as prime ministers. * * * The whole ship, 
from her keel to the taffrail, was equally 
affected, and contained pestilence sufficient 
to desolate a world ; disease and death were 
wrought into her very timbers." 

The appearance of the Old Jeeset as she 
lay in the Whallabocht, is graphically des- 
cribed by Capt. Dring. Leaving New-York, 
together with 130 prisoners, brought in by 
the British ship Belisarius, he proceeded to 
the place of their imprisonment under the 
charge of the notorious David Sproat, Com- 
missary of Prisoners. " We at length p^^^^, 
doubled the Point," he says, "and came in p. 26. 
view of the Wallabout, where lay before us 
the black hulk of the Old Jeeset, with her 
satellites, the three hospital ships, to which 
Sproat pointed in an exulting manner, and 
said, ' There, Rebels, there is the cage for 



16 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

you !' * * As he spoke, my eye was in- 
stantly turned from the dreaded hulk ; but a 
single glance had shown us a multitude of 
human beings moving upon her upper deck. 
It was then nearly sun-set, and before we 
were alongside, every man, except the senti- 
nels on the gangway, had disappeared. Pre- 
vious to their being sent below, some of the 
prisoners, seeing us approaching, waved their 
hats, as if they would say, approach us not ; 
and we soon found fearful reason for the 
warning." While waiting along-side for or- 
ders, some of the prisoners addressed them 
through the air-holes, which we have des- 
cribed. One of them said, " that it is a 
lamentable thing to see so many young men 
in full strength, with the flush of health upon 
their countenances, about to enter that in- 
fernal place of abode. Death, he said, had 
no relish for such skeleton carcases as we 
are ; but he will now have a feast upon you 
fresh comers." The 130 new comers were 
registered and sent below; but they could 
not sleep, the intolerable heat and foul air 



BRITISH PRISON. SHIPS. 17 

was too much for endurance. They sought 
the air-holes, but these were occupied; and 
the law of self-preservation appeared to 
justify the parties in keeping possession. 
The crowded condition of the hulk prevented 
them from moving about, so that they were 
forced to sit down half suffocated and wait 
the coming of the morning. Thus they 
passed the first dreadful night, with sorrow- 
ful forebodings of the approaching day, 
which was destined to present new scenes 
of wretchedness and woe, in the crowd of 
strange and unknown forms, with the lines 
of death and famine upon their faces. 

" On every side, dire objects met the sight, 
And pallid forms, and murders of the night." 

The prisoners were confined on the two 
lower decks; the foreign prisoners generally 
in the lower one. It appears that they were, 
if possible, more cruelly treated than the 
Americans. This cannot be accounted for, 
unless through some local feeling, for it was 
contrary to the course generally pursued by 
the EngHsh. A marked distinction was 

2 



Britis 
An 



p. 15 



19 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

made between the prisoners confined at 
Plymouth, in England. The Americans 
were treated with less humanity than the 
French and Spanish, and were allowed only 
"^^^l^ half the quantity of bread per day. Their 
iTsT, petitions for relief, offered by Mr. Fox, in 
the House of Commons, and by the Duke 
of Richmond, in the House of Lords, were 
treated with contempt ; while the French 
and Spanish had few or no complaints to 
make. But in the Old Jeeset, they were 
covered with rags and dirt, and appeared to be 
past all feeling or expectation of escape. 
Broken, crushed by the iron heel of despo- 
tism, — neglected, forgotten, they had no 
hope to cheer them. 

There are few who could have avoid- 
ed similar feelings of indifference to life, 
under such appalling circumstances. It 
was almost foohsh to look forward for 
relief, or escape. If they succeeded in 
scahng the barricade which surrounded 
the deck, they only exposed themselves 
to the deadly fire of the guards, or to 
the risk of being cut to pieces before reach- 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. U 

ing the shore. Many poor fellows tried this 
experiment, and paid the forfeiture of their 
lives in the attempt. 

The guards were forbidden, under pain of 
severe punishment, to relieve the wants of 
the distressed; and, in this particular, dis- 
obedience was never known. Their's was 
the law of the Medes and the Persians, 
which knew no change, and admitted no 
appeal. 

The petitions of the suffering and sick 
were frequently answered with the foot or 
the bayonet.'* William Burke, from New- 
port, Delaware, says, that he was confined 
in the Old Jersey fourteen months, and that 
he saw, among other cruelties, many Ameri- 
can prisoners put to death by the bayonet. 
This cruel treatment was never in the least 
relaxed by the English or Scotch ; but, some- 
times, the more humane Hessians evinced 
pity for the unfortunate sufferers. During 
the hot weather, the prisoners were admit- Hist of the 

Martyrs, 

ted, one at a time, on deck through the night. ^ ®^ 
When this great privilege was granted, they 



20 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

assembled in a crowd around the grate at 
the hatchway, for the purpose of getting 
fresh air, and to take their turn to go on 
deck. Frequently, when this was the case, 
the sentinels would thrust their bayonets 
down among them with the most wanton 
cruelty. Twenty-five were thus butchered 
in one night. Other witnesses speak of 
four, six, eight, and ten victims thus mur- 
Andross dcrcd at difl?erent times. The sufferino- from 

Account, ^ 

P ^* thirst during the hot nights was intense, but 
it was extremely dangerous to approach the 
port-hole to ascend for water. " Provoked 
by the continual cry for leave to ascend, 
when there was already one on deck, the 
sentry would push them back with the 
bayonet." By one of those thrusts, which 
was more spiteful and violent than common, 
Andros barely escaped with his life. 

On the 4th day of July, 1782, the prison- 
ers suifered the most brutal treatment, be- 
cause they presumed to remember the 
Brings birth-day of our Independence. Their little 

^Narrative. 

banners were torn down and trampled under 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. ^1 

foot by the guard ; and, for the crime of sing- 
ing a few patriotic songs, they were driven, at 
the point of the bayonet, below deck, long 
before the usual hour. Such music had no 
charms for the Scotch guard on duty. The 
spirit of liberty found no response in their 
breasts. The heroes and heroism of their 
native Highlands had been forgotten in the 
trade of war. The voice of suffering, and 
the eloquence of death, made no impression 
on their hardened hearts. After they had 
been sent below, and the hatches were clos- 
ed, the prisoners thought that they might, 
without giving further offence, cheer each 
other up by a few songs of affection for their 
bleeding country. But this privilege was re- 
fused them ; and because they did not in- 
stantly heed that refusal, the guards went 
down among them, with lanterns in one 
hand and cutlasses in the other, and, driving 
the crowd of defenceless victims before them, 
they cut and wounded all within their reach. 
Then, to gratify their hellish feelings, they 
closed the hatches and left the wounded 



S2 BEITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

and dying, in darkness, without the least 
means of dressing their wounds, or stopping 
the flow of blood. Still further to aggra- 
vate the suflferings of this dreadful night, the 
poor allowance of food and water was denied, 
and their dying petitions were mocked by 
those cruel monsters. Ten mangled and 
lifeless bodies were turned out in the morn- 
ing, a most gratifying evidence to the guards, 
that their brave attack upon the unarmed 
and the sick, had been successful. 

This act of fiendish brutality was equalled, 

if not surpassed, by the commander of the 

Stromboli. The treatment of the prisoners 

on this ship was so intolerable that it pro- 

Taibot'sduced a revolt, in which many of the pris- 

Life. 

oners were either killed or wounded. But 
order was soon restored, and the dead and 
dying were thrown upon deck. One poor 
fellow, lying almost exhausted by a mortal 
wound, begged of the Captain, "for God's 
sake to give him a little water, for he was 
dying." The brave officer, placing a light 
before him, exclaimed : " What ! is it you — 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. m 

damn you ! take that, you damn'd rebel ras- 
cal," and dashed his foot into the face of the 
dying man ! And he took it, and, dying, bore 
this insult to humanity, fresh to the throne 
of a just and an avenging God. 

During the imprisonment of Talbot, there 
were eleven hundred prisoners in the Jersey, 
w^hich was the number usually confined in 
her, without berths to lie down on, or 
benches to sit upon, and many of them were 
almost naked. The allowance of clothing 
was scanty, and its quality outrageous, and 
the conduct of the guards as brutal as it 
was possible for it to be ; while dysentery, 
fever, small-pox, and the recklessness of de- 
spair, filled the hulk with filth of the most 
disgusting character. In such a place, the 
mingled sick, and dying, and dead, presented 
a scene too horrible to contemplate, and 
from which the coldest heart must have 
turned away. 

But every spark of humanity had fled 
from the breasts of their guards. The only 
sympathy ever received, was from the Hes- 



2.4 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

sians when they were on duty, and that was 
but Httle. The EngHsh and Scotch seemed 
to vie with each other in their refined cruel- 
ty, and were as httle moved by these scenes 
of suffering and death, as the ship's timbers 
which surrounded the prisoners, or the 
bayonets by which they were so unneces- 
sarily wounded. 

" At every post some surly vagrant stands, 
CuU'd from the English or the Scottish bands, 
Dispensing death." 

oidjersey " Thc lowcr hold and the orlop deck were 

Captive. ' 

P ^^ such a terror, that no man would venture 
down into them. Humanity would have 
dictated a more merciful treatment to a 
band of pirates, who had been condemned 
and were only awaiting the gibbet, than to 
have sent them here." But, in the view of 
the English, the prisoners were rebels and 
traitors. They had risen against the mother 
country in an unjust and wanton civil war, 
and were receiving the just punishment of 
their rebellion. 



BRITISH PEISON -SHIPS. 25 

In 1782, when Alexander Coffin was sent^MartVl^ 

page 29. 

a prisoner on board of the Old Jersey, he 
found about eleven At^/ic^rec? prisoners there, 
many of whom, during the severity of the 
winter, were without clothing to keep them 
warm. To remedy this difficulty, they were 
compelled to keep below, and either get into 
their hammocks, or walk the deck, which 
was almost impossible. In this way, they 
could keep from freezing, by using great ef- ^^^^ 
forts, but it was not always done. We ha\ e MemoS, 
an account of one poor fellow whose feet 
and legs were frozen. Mr. Sherburne saw 
the toes and flesh fall from his feet, while 
the nurse was dressing them. 

To cap the chmax of infamy, Coffin says, 
they fed the prisoners on putrid beef and 
pork, and worm-eaten bread, which had been 
condemned on their ships of w ar. It was 
full of vermin, but they had to eat it, worms 

Jersey 

and all, or starve. On the upper gun-deck, capt. p. i? 
hogs were kept in pens for the use of the 
officers. When they were fed with bran, 
the prisoners would steal it from the trough, 



26 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

and, after boiling it, would eat it with as good 
an appetite as the hogs themselves. 

They were sometimes denied the use of 
fire, for several days in succession, and were 
thus compelled to eat their meat raw. When 
fire was allowed, it was confined to a large 
copper boiler, which had been corroded by 
the use of salt water. Into this poisonous 
place, they were compelled to put their meat, 
and to take it out again at a particular time, 
whether cooked or not. To the use of this 
corroded boiler, and the filthy bilge-water 
which they drank in the absence of better, 
Capt. Dring attributed much of their sick- 
ness. Light was not permitted at night, 
and the hulk was so crowded, that the pris- 
oners could not move without treading upon 
each other. Their rest was broken by the 
groans of the sick and dying, and by the 
curses poured out upon their inhuman keep- 
ers by those who had been driven into deli- 
rium by the suffocating heat and poisoned 
air. The dying, in their last convulsive 
agonies, frequently threw themselves across 



BRITISH PEISON-SHIPS. a7 

their sick companions ; and, as the sick w ere 
unable to remove the Hfeless bodies, they 
were compelled to wait until morning, with 
their comrades stretched upon their own ex- 
hausted frames. 

Andrew Sherburne was removed from the burnes 

Memoirs, 

Old Jersey to the hospital-ship Weymouth, p^geiis 
where he found the brothers, John and Abra- 
ham Fall. The Falls were lying sick on the 
same cot, not far from the one he occupied, 
but they were not able to visit each other. 
The sick in the hospital-ships were too feeble 
to help themselves, and the nurses took more 
interest in their death, than they did in re- 
lieving their wants. Their clothing and 
blankets, however poor, were a sufficient re- 
ward for their neglect, and generally over- 
came their feelings of humanity. When 
present, they spent their time in playing 
cards, while the suffering prisoners were im- 
ploring them for water, or some other little 
attention. But, generally, they were out of 
the way, and left the sick to take care of them- 
selves. One night, when thus left alone, 



28 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

Abraham Fall plead with his brother John 
to get olTfroni hiin; and the sick around swore 
at Jolin for his cruelty in lying on his 
brother ; but John made no reply, he was 
deaf to the cries of his brother, and beyond 
the curses of the suffering crowd. In the 
morning, he was found dead ; and his brother 
Abraham, whose exhausted strength had 
given way under the pressure of the corpse, 
was in a dying state. The sick were unable 
to relieve them, and the nurses were not 
there. 
N^riaSve Captalu Driug describes the case of a poor 
^""^^ boy, only twelve years old, confined with him 
on the Old Jersey. The little fellow had 
been inoculated for the small-pox, which 
disease the English had adopted as an ally 
in their humane care of the prisoners. 
"The boy was a member of the same mess 
with myself," Dring says, " and had always 
looked upon me as a protector, and particu- 
larly so during his sickness. The night of 
his death was truly a wretched one to me ; 
for I spent almost the whole of it in perfect 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 29 

darkness, holding him during his convulsions ; 
and it was heart-rending to hear the screams 
of the dying boy, while calling and imploring, 
in his delirium, for the assistance of his 
mother and other members of his family. 
For a long time, all persuasion or argument 
was useless to silence his groans and suppli- 
cations. But exhausted nature, at length, 
sunk under its agonies ; his screams became 
less piercing, and his struggles less violent. 
In the midnight gloom of our dungeon,! could 
not see him die, but knew, by placing my 
hand over his mouth, that hisbreathings were 
becoming shorter ; and thus felt the last 
breath as it quitted his frame. The first 
glimmer of morning light through the iron 
grate fell upon his pallid and lifeless corpse." 
This was the end, the result contemplated, 
by the British in their brutal conduct. Noth- 
ing was left untried that could injure or de- 
stroy. They warred on decrepid old age — ^.^^ ^^.^ 
on defenceless youth. They committed hos- Se^sr 

N. J., 1777 

tilities against professors of literature and the 
ministers of rehgion — against public records 



30 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS, 

and private manuscripts, books of improve- 
ment, and papers of curiosity. They butch- 
ered the wounded, asking for quarter ; 
mangled the dead, weltering in their blood, 
and refused them the rites of sepulture ; 
suffered prisoners to perish for want of sus- 
tenance ; insulted the persons of females ; 
and, in their barbarism, profaned edifices 
dedicated to Almighty God. 

The wife of a dying prisoner was not 
permitted to see him expire ; and because 
she wept in her distress, the infamous Cun- 
ningham had her stripped and unmercifully 
punished. But, Cunningham and David 
Sproat were not the only monsters in the 
British service. A sailor, more humane than 
his Royal Captain who wore the insignia 
of British military honor, discovering that 
Gavot, of Rhode Island, who had been 
sewed up in his hammock, and thrown out 
among the dead, was still living, called the 
attention of his commander to the fact. 
The courageous and humane captain repli- 
ed, " In with him ; if he is not dead, he soon 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 3% 

will be." But, honor to the noble tar, he 
refused to bury the hving, and with his knife 
ripped open the hammock, and loosed him 
from the shackles of the grave. Let the 
name of that commander be ascertained and 
erased from the roll of humanity* As he 
was destitute of all principle and feeling, let 
him be no longer called — Man. 

At sun-down, the prisoners were ordered 
below deck. "Down, rebels, down," was the 
elegant language of their guards;- and in 
the morning, after the sufferino^s of the night, 
its long, anxious and painful watches, its 
untold agonies, and unnumbered deaths, the 
"Rebels" were commanded, in tones of de- 
rision, to "turn out their dead." And the 
dead were turned out from the living, mo- 
tion, not appearance, frequently determining 
the selection, and were sewed up in their 
blankets, and carried by their companions, 
under a guard, to the shore, and there hastily 
buried. This was done so carelessly and 
hastily, that each succeeding tide washed 
out some of their remains. The corpses 



32 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

Dring's were laid in the trenches without ceremony, 

Narrative, '' 

^' ^^ and the sand hastily and thinly thrown over 
them, while the remains of those previously 
interred with the same mockery, were ex- 
posed to view. More than half of the dead 
buried on the outer side of the mill-pond, 
were washed out by the waves at high tide, 
and their bones were exposed along the 
beach, bleaching in the sun and whitening 
the shore. The whole shore, from Rennie's 
Johnsons Poiut to Remscu's door-yard, and from his 

Recollec- 
tions. |)arn to Rapelje's farm, and the slopes of 

the hill, and the sand island, between the 

flood-gates and the mill-dam, were filled with 

the remains of these martyrs. 

Thus were thousands of our countrymen 

inhumanly and cowardly murdered. It is 

believed that not less than eleven thousand 

perished in the Old Jersey alone. How 

many were added to this number from the 

other ships, God only knows ! The story is 

too dreadful to dwell upon. Were it not 

for the undoubted evidence of witnesses but 

recently deceased, and of historians, who 



BEITISH PEISON-SHIPS. 33 

suffered in the hulks, " which things they 
saw, and of them were a part," and wrote 
from their own painful recollections and the 
monument of mouldering bones which lie 
here, cherished by us as the sacred '' relics 
of freedom's martyrs," we might doubt the 
facts. Nay, it would be natural for us to 
hesitate to believe that our enemies were so 
unmanly and brutal. Without all this evi- 
dence, we would not be authorized to 
blacken the pages of the history of one of 
the most enlightened nations of the earth, 
with crimes, which, to relate in common 
terms, are sufficient to crimson the cheeks 
of her people for ages to come. In the 
language of one of our own noble officers, 
God grant that the record of such crimes 
may be opened up in heaven against our 
enemies, and not against us ! 

The knowledge of these things was not 
confined to the petty officers and guards ; 
their superiors knew it; and the ministers Debate 

^ ' in Parlia- 

of the English Government had knowledge™^"*"" 
of them. They were not the results of 

3 



Mr. Fox's 
motion. 



34 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS- 

circumstances, nor the fruits of temporary 
passion. Their cruelty was a part of their 
policy, deliberately and remorselessly pur- 
sued. This was the just punishment of their 
rebelhon, the patriots were told, and it was 
better than they deserved. You deserve to 
be hanged. Gen. Howe said, to Lieut. Duns- 
Thatchers ^'omb and his fellow prisoners, for your re- 
wote! bellion ; and you shall all be hanged I 
'' Hang, and be d — d," was Dunscomb's 
reply. 

General Washington remonstrated against 
their cruel treatment, in a letter to Admiral 
Digby, which was filled with the most touch- 
ing and noble sentiments. " If the fortune 
of war, sir, has thrown a number of these 
miserable people into your hands, I am cer- 
tain your excellency's feelings for the men 
must induce you to proportion the ships, (if 
they must be confined on board ships,) to 
their accommodation and comfort, and not, 
by crowding them together in a few ships, 
bring on diseases which consign them by the 
half-dozen in a day to the grave." 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 35 

Before this, on the 13th day of January, 
1777, he wrote in the following terms to 
Howe : " I am sorry that I am under the 
disagreeable necessity to trouble your Lord- 
ship with a letter, almost wholly on the sub 
ject of the cruel treatment which our officers 
and men, in the naval department, who are 
unhappy enough to fall into your hands, re- 
ceive on board the prison-ships in the harbour 
of New-York. Without descending to par- 
ticulars, I shall ground my complaint upon 
the matter contained in the enclosed paper, 
which is an exact copy of an account of the 
usage of the prisoners, delivered to Congress 
by one Captain Gamble, lately a prisoner 
himself in New- York. If this account be 
true, of which I have no reason to doubt, 
as Captain Gamble is said to be a man of 
veracity, I call upon your Lordship to say, 
whether any treatment of your officers and 
seamen has merited so severe a retaliation. 
I am bold to say, it has not. * * * * And 
I hope upon making the proper inquiry, you 
will have the matter so regulated, that the 



36 BRITISH PRISON. SHIPS. 

unhappy persons, in captivity, may not in 
the future have the miseries of cold, disease, 
and famine, added to their other misfortunes. 
You may call us rebels, and say that w^e de- 
serve no better treatment ; but, remember, 
my Lord, that supposing us rebels, we still 
have feelings equally as keen and sensible as 
loyalists, and will, if forced to it, most assur- 
edly retaliate upon those, upon whom we 
look as the unjust invaders of our rights, 
liberties, and properties. I should not have 
said thus much ; but my injured countrymen 
have long called upon me to endeavor to 
obtain redress of their grievances; and I 
should think myself as culpable as those who 
inflict such severities upon them, were I to 
continue silent." And, again, he writes : 
"Those who have lately been sent out, give 
the most shocking account of their barba- 
rous usage, which their miserable, emaciated 
countenances confirm. * * * I would 
beg, that some certain rule of conduct to- 
wards prisoners may be settled ; and, if you 
are determined to make captivity as distress- 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 37 

ing as possible, let me know it, that we may 
be upon equal terms, for your conduct must 
and shall regulate mine." In closing this 
letter he says, " Most of the prisoners who 
have returned home, (this was by an ex- 
change which had been agreed upon,) have 
informed me, that they were offered better 
treatment, provided they would enlist into 
your service. This, I beheve, is unprece- 
dented, and, if true, makes it still more un- 
necessary for me to apologize for the freedom 
of expression which I have used through- 
out this letter." 

In 1782, Commissioner Skinner wrote to 
the infamous Sproat. After charging him 
with the basest falsehoods, he says, " I was 
refused permission to visit the prison-ships, 
for which I can conceive no other reason 
than your being ashamed to have these 
graves of our seamen seen by one who dar- 
ed to represent the horrors uf them to his 
countrymen." 

During all this time, every attempt to re- 
lieve the sufferings of the prisoners, either 



38 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

by their friends or on the part of the Gov- 
ernment, was ingeniously defeated. If money 
or suppHes was sent, they were appropriated 
by their jailors. If an exchange was agreed 

Washing- . . .. 

on's Pro- upon, the prisoners were not sent out, until 

test to * 

Howe, tj^gy j^jj(] been reduced to skeletons by star- 
vation and disease. Thus, rendered unfit 
for future service, they returned, many of 
them only to find graves at home. 

And in order to increase their misery, and 
drive them to desperation, the prisoners were 
told by the English officers, that they were 
neglected by their Government — that ex- 
change, except in a few instances, was re- 
fused ; and that their sufferings resulted from 
their own stubbornness; and, if they persist- 
ed in it, they should suffer and die in their 
filth. This stubbornness, which so much 
excited the English, was evinced in their 
refusal to enlist in the service of the king, 
against their own country. If they would 
commit this vile act, they were informed that 
they could avoid the torture of the prison- 
ships, the insults, and starvation, and sick- 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 39 

ness, and all the stages of their slow but 
certain death. "You are treated too well jo^amaf,' 

p.. 76. 

for rebels; you have not received half you 
deserve, and half you shall receive; but if 
you will enlist in His Majesty's service, you 
shall have victuals and clothing enough." 
This was the language used to our unfortu- 
nate seamen and soldiers. And to prove 
the assertion that there was still worse treat- 
ment in reserve for them, they put four of 
our wounded officers into a dirt cart, and 
drove them through the City of New- York, 
" as objects of derision, reviled as rebels, and 
treated with the utmost contempt ;" while 
some were seated upon coffins, with ropes 
around their necks, and driven to the gal- 
lows, where they were derided and abused, 
and then driven back to prison. The British ^j;;^,^ 
officer, Fraser, told others, if they did not 
join the English army, they should go to the 
dungeons and prison-ships, to perish and to 
rof, and their wives and children should be 
forced to starve in the public streets, and to 
curse them as the authors of their miserable 



s Ad- 



4g BRITISH PRISON. SHIPS. 

fate. Ill this instance, the souls of the 
listening heroes were touched, and they 
momentarily trembled under the terrible 
sentence ; but love of country triumphed 
over love of family, and, as if moved by one 
impulse, this glorious band of patriots thun- 
dered in the astonished ears of their perse- 
cutors, "the prison-ships and death, or 
Washington and our country." Death, or 
the British service were the only alterna- 
tives ; and the former, in almost every in- 
stance, was preferred. Coffin, and Dring, 
and others who suffered with them, say that 
the prisoners resolved to bear everything 
that their enemies might inflict, but never 
to desert their country for a service which 
their hearts detested. 

It was this forced enlistment, that Wash- 
ington characterized as "unprecedented," 
and he might have added, "a violation of the 
laws of nations." But it was as useless as 
it was contemptible. With an eye of proud 
disdain, and souls burning with the eternal 
fire of liberty, the prisoners spurned the in- 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 41 

suiting offer, as the reward of treason. 
" Our country's liberty is dear to our souls," ^orS' 
they could say, "it deserves a mighty sacri-Hj^*^°f^*J^« 
fice ; let it be free, and our blood shall be ^^^^ 
avenged ; it is for this we suffer, and for it we 
are willing to die." 

" Bodies fall by wild sword-law ; 



But who would force the Soul, tilts with a straw 
Against a Champion cased in adamant." 

This was the true nobility of patriotism — 
the mighty spirit of liberty triumphing over 
death — calm, resolute, unconquerable brave- 
ry, defying torture, and starvation, and loath- 
some disease, and the prospect of a neglected 
and forgotten grave. There was no pros- 
pect of glory to sustain them in their fearful 
trials — no excitement of battle, in which 
they might forget their danger and earn their 
death. Such men could not be conquered. 
Taken, imprisoned they might be ; but con- 
quered, never. Wounded, neglected, starved, 
hurled without mercy into these nauseous 
tombs of living victims, to die unhonored and 
unknown ; and to be thrown upon the sand- 



48 BEITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

banks, a horrid repast for the birds of 
prey, — this, all this they saw, and felt to be 
impending ; but, with prophetic eyes they 
also saw, beyond and above their individual 
sufferings, the image of their country's liber- 
ty rising triumphantly above their graves. 
Death might seal their career, but victory 
would crown their standard with eternal 
freedom. For this they had fought, and for 
it they were ready to die. Like the accom- 
plished, the noble-hearted, and self-sacrificing 

Washing- 

^°"P^- Hale, whose life was so freely offered, and 
pageM9. wlio lamcutcd only, that he had but one life 
to lose for his country, they had considered 
their position, — had weighed the objects of 
the Revolution against the perils it involved, 
and were ready to meet its results ; if not 
on the field of battle in deadly conflict, 
cheered by the shouts of victory ; then and 
there, and in any way, so the principles of 
self-government were established, and the 
arm of tyranny was paralyzed. 

Pericles, in his eloquent oration over the 
bones of the Grecian heroes, said, the misery 



BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 4S 

which accompanies cowardice is far more 
grievous to a man of high spirit, than the 
unfelt death which comes upon him at once, 
in the time of his strength and of his hope 
for the common welfare. But these, our 
countrymen, died amidst starvation and pov- 
erty, where their strength was reduced by a 
slow and cruel death, wasted by degrees, in 
scenes of the most heart-rending character. 
If Grecian patriots merited a distinguished 
tomb, and inscriptive columns rearing their 
lofty heads to heaven, to tell of their glory, 
as well as that unwritten memorial of the 
heart, which all good men keep of their fel- 
lows ; what, I ask, is due to the unnumbered 
heroes and martyrs, whose bones lie mould- 
ering here, unhonored even by the slightest 
memorial ! 

Our free institutions — this great and pros- 
perous RepubUc, with its social, political and 
religious liberties — are monuments to their 
memory ; and God grant that they may con- 
tinue so forever ! But here, on the spot 
consecrated to liberty by the life of the im- 



44 BRITISH PRISON-SHIPS. 

mortal Hale, and nurtured by the blood of 
the unnumbered and unnamed victims of 
barbarity, who " died in vindication of the 
rights of man," there is no material Monu- 
ment, the evidence of their country's remem- 
brance and gratitude — no stone, bearing 
the records of their patriotic devotion to 
principle, and of their more than heroic 
deaths ! 



t^ On page 23, eleventh line from the top, in part of the edition, clothing is 
erroneously printed for the Vfoxd food. 



APPENDIX. 



The Articles of the Association, referred 
to in the Introduction, with their Preamble, 
are as follows, to wit : — 

The Convention of Delegates appointed by the several Com- 
mittees in the County of Kings, for the purpose of devising and 
adopting the means necessary to secure the erection of a suitable 
Monument to the memory of the prisoners who died during the 
Revolutionary War, on board the Prison-Ships in the Wallabout 
Bay, have associated, and do ordain as follows, to wit : — 

ARTICLE I. 

This Association shall be called " The Martyr Monument 
Association." 

ARTICLE II. 
The object of this Association is, to erect a suitable Monument 
to the memory of those who died martyrs to the Revolution, 
in the British Prison-Ships in the Wallabout Bay. 

ARTICLE III. 

The affairs, assets, property, and powers of this Association 
shall be managed and exercised, by a Board of not less than 
fifteen, nor more than twenty-one Directors, to be chosen one 



46 APPENDIX. 

from each Committee in the County of Kings ; and four at large, 
to be elected by the Delegates from said Committees^ appointed 
for the purpose ; which Directors shall continue in office for the 
space of one year, and until their successors are duly elected ; 
and, whenever a vacancy in the Board shall occur, they shall fill 
the same by electing a Director from the Committee to which 
the member causing such vacancy belonged. 

ARTICLE IV. 

The Board of Directors shall have power to appoint a Presi- 
dent, a Vice-President, a Recording Secretary, a Corresponding 
Secretary, and a Treasurer from their own number, to hold their 
respective offices for one year, or until others are appointed in 
their stead ; and to appoint such other officers and agents as from 
time to time may become necessary to aid them in the performance 
of their trust ; to remove them at pleasure ; to prescribe their re* 
spective duties ; and to make such By-Laws, Rules and Regula- 
tions for the government of their own Board, the management and 
direction of their business, the erection, maintenance, preserva* 
lion, regulation and custody of the said Monument, as they may, 
from time to time, judge necessary and expedient ; and the said 
Board shall take from the Treasurer a bond, with one or more 
sureties, such as shall be approved by them, by resolution of said 
Board, for the faithful performance of his duties ; and from 
other officers and agents, such security as the said Board may 
think proper. 

ARTICLE V. 

So soon as the said Board may deem it expedient, it shall be 
competent to purchase or otherwise acquire ground, and com- 
mence the erection of the said Monument, and to make contracts 
therefor : Provided, however, that no contract shall be made, or 
liability contracted, for an amount exceeding the sum at such 



APPENDIX. 41' 

ime in the hands of the Treasurer, and not otherwise ap- 
propriated. And the President of the said Board is hereby desig- 
nated as the officer and agent of the Association to whom con- 
veyances of Real Estate shall be made ; and to hold the same in 
trust, and to convey the same, on behalf of the Association, in 
such manner and for such purposes as the said Board of 
Directors shall determine. 

ARTICLE VI. 
The Board of Directors shall cause all their proceedings to be 
recorded in a book to be kept for that purpose ; which Book 
shall be open, at all reasonable hours, for the inspection of all 
members of Committees in good standing, who may have contri- 
buted to the funds or property of the Association. 

ARTICLE VII. 

The election of the first Board of Directors shall be held im- 
mediately after the adoption of these Articles of Association by 
the Delegates now convened ; and the Directors for every sub- 
sequent Board shall be elected by the respective Committees, 
(one from each Committee) within the week preceding the Mon- 
day following the first Tuesday in September of each year ; which 
Directors shall convene as soon thereafter as practicable, and 
elect so many Directors at large as shall make and constitute 
the full number of twenty-one Directors. 

ARTICLE VIII. 

No amendment to this Constitution shall be made, unless pro- 
posed by a majority of the Board of Directors ; nor unless notice 
of such proposed amendment shall have been given at least one 
meeting previous to being adopted, and been ratified by a ma- 
jority of a Convention held for that purpose, consisting of three 
Delegates from each Committee in King's County. 



48 



APPENDIX. 



In conformity with the foregoing Articles, 
the following are Directors and Officers : 

|§0arb of ^xxttUxs, 



John Q. Adams, 
James R. Burton, 
RuFus R. Belknap, 
M. P. Coons, 
Wm. T. Elmendorf, 
Wm. L. Ely, 
H. B. Fenton, 
Wm. B. Howard, 
J. B. Kiersted, 
James Leine, 

James G. 



Henrt W. Maiian, 
Robert C. Morris, 
Wm. H. Richards, 
Henry C. Rossiter, 
Thomas Stacey, 
Isaac H. Smith, 
S. G. Striker, 
George Taylor, 
Fred. W. Walker, 
E. J. Whitlock, 
Williamson. 



(Dffirns. 

GEORGE TAYLOR, President ; No. 7 Broad-street, N. Y. 
JAMES R. B\JKTON,Vice-Pres. ; Adelphi st., c. Myrtle Av., Brooklyn. 
FRED. W. WALKER, Rec. Sec'y ; {Office) 247 Broadway, N. Y. ; or 
" " Cor. Sec'y; (House) 90 Wash'n-st., Brooklyn. 

E. J. WHITLOCK, Treasurer; No. 39 Nassau-street, N. Y. 



JPinanrB dDnramittn. 

ISAAC H. SMITH, No. 157 Pearl-street, N. Y 
WM. H. RICHARDS, No. 45 Barclay-st., " 
ROBERT C. MORRIS, No. 113 Broadway, " 



The Board of Directors, pursuant to 
the Articles of Association, have adopted, 
for their government, the following 

BY-LAWS. 



A STATED Meetinff of the Board of Directors shall be Meetings; 

when and 

held on the first Tuesday in September of each year ; ^'*^'^® ^^^^* 
and on the second Monday of every month during the 
year, at such hour as the Board shall from time to time 
determine. Occasional meetings may be held at any time, 
at the call of the President, or request of any three mem- 
bers of the Board. 

II. 
At all meetings of the Directors, the President shall pre- Presiding 

° ^ officer, 

side, if he be present ; but, if he be absent, the chair shall 
be taken by the Vice-President. If neither of those 
officers be present, a Chairman, pro tempore, shall be ap- 
pointed from the Directors present. 

III. 
Twelve Directors shall constitute a quorum for the Quorum, 
transaction of ordinary business ; the. decision of a majority 

4 



50 BY-LAWS. 

of whom, duly assembled, shall be valid ; but a vote of a 
majority of the whole number of Directors, for the time 
being, shall be necessary to elect a Director to fill a va- 
cancy in the Board. 

IV. 
Order of Thc Order of Business shall be as follows : 

Business. 

1. Calling the Roll of Members. 

2. Reading and approval of Minutes. 

3. Communications from the President. 

4. Do. do. Corresponding Secretary. 

5. Report of Recording Secretary. 

6. Do. Treasurer. 

7. Do. Finance Committee. 

8. Do. Building " 

9. Reports of Special Committees. 
10. Miscellaneous Business. 

V. 

bl°/n°writ° ■'^o motion shall be considered as before the Board, unless 
seconded, and, when required by any Director present, re- 
duced to writing. 

VI. 

of Debate" ^o Director may speak more than twice, on the same 
question, without leave of the Board ; nor more than once, 
in any case, until every member choosing to speak shall 
have spoken. 

VII. 
Questions ; AH qucstions shall be put by the Chairman, and decided 
cjded- ^j^^ voce. On the request of any Director, the ayes and 



BY-LAWS. 5r 

noes shall be called upon any question, and shall be entered 
on the Minutes. 

VIII. 

All Committees shall be appointed by the Chair, except {;°™!"how 
as herein otherwise directed ; or, unless otherwise ordered *pp°"^*® 
by the Board, at the time. 

IX. 
The Rules of Order at all Meetings of the Board, ex- ^^^%^ of 

o ' Order. 

cept as herein otherwise provided, shall be, as nearly as 
practicable, those of the Senate of the United States. 

X. 

Elections to fill vacancies in the Board of Directors shall \^ow"mfed.' 
be, in all cases, by ballot ; and no person shall be chosen a 
Director, unless he receive the votes of a majority of all 
the then Directors. No person shall be elected to fill a 
vacancy in the Board of Directors, who shall not have 
been nominated at a previous meeting of the Board — such 
nomination being entered on the Minutes. 

The notice of every meeting, at which an election of a 
Director is to be held, shall specify the fact that a vacancy 
in the Board of Directors is to be filled at such meeting. 

XL 

A Finance Committee of three members shall be chosen, commute, 
from among the Directors, at least once in each year. 

XII. 
A Building Committee, consisting of three members, comm/ufe. 
shall be chosen from among the Directors, at least once in 
each year. 



on BY-LAWS, 

XIII. 
standing The Finance and the Building Conamittees, hereafter, 

Committees; 

how chosen, gi^^ll each, in all cases, be chosen by ballot, on the 
second Tuesday in September ; or, in case of no quorum at- 
tending on that day, at the first meeting thereafter. Va- 
cancies occurring in either of these committees, may be 
filled at any subsequent meeting. Any member of either 
of these committees may be removed before the expiration 
of the year for which he was chosen, by the votes of a 
majority of the whole number of Directors, taken by ayes 
and noes, and entered upon the Minutes. 

XIV. 
Fiscal year. rpj^^ fiscal year of the Association shall commence on the 
second Tuesday in September ; on which day the term of 
all officers shall expire ; but they shall continue to perform 
the duties of their respective offices until others are 
elected. 

XV. 

tVbe inheres- ^o Director or officer of this Association shall, directly 
or contracts, or indirectly, be interested in the loan of any money bor- 
rowed from the Association, or be security for any money 
borrowed from the Association, or for the performance of 
any contract made with the Association, or interested in any 
contract made with the Association, or in the sale of any 
materials to the Association, or in services rendered to the 
Association, other than the discharge of the duties of their 
respective offices. 

XVI. 
^fmSt B The Finance Committee shall specially attend to the 
raising of funds for the objects of the Association ; devis- 



BY-LAWS. 53 

ing the various modes by which such funds shall be raised ; 
appointing collectors, if necessary ; determining the amount 
and the mode of their compensation, (subject, however, to 
the control of the Board of Directors ;) drafting and ad- 
dressing the various letters and circulars asking aid ; coun- 
selling and advising with the Treasurer in the safe keeping 
and making productive all unexpended sums ; devising 
the necessary checks to insure the faithful conduct and 
honest co-operation of all subordinate agents. They shall 
audit all bills and charges for the current and incidental 
expenses of the Association, and for salaries. They shall 
determine upon the sufficiency of all sureties that may be 
taken or required in behalf of the Association, (except the 
sureties of the Treasurer, which shall be determined by the 
Board of Directors.) They shall, from time to time, ex- 
amine, and shall report, at least once a year, to the Board 
of Directors, their opinion upon the sufficiency of all sure- 
ties (as well of the Treasurer as others) taken in behalf of 
the Association, specifying in such report the names of all 
sureties, the amount and object for which bound, and such 
other particulars as they may think proper. 

XVII. 

After the adoption of the plan by the Board of Directors, „^""^i"s, 
(which shall require a vote of two-thirds of the whole number ^'^^^^^' 
of Directors,) the Building Committee shall have the imme- 
diate charge and supervision of all that relates to the actual 
erection of the monument ; subject, however, in all respects, 
to the control and approval of the Board of Directors. 
They shall prepare and attend to the proper execution of 
all contracts authorized by the Board of Directors to be 
made with the builders, mechanics, artists, and artizan, 



54 BY-LAWS. 

that may be employed, or for any materials to be furnish- 
ed. They shall, when thereunto required by a vote of the 
Board, make detailed and specific reports of the progress 
of the work to the Board of Directors. 

XVIII. 
Contracts; No contract for labor, materials, or any other obiect, 

Uow to be ' ' ./ J ' 

made, (exccpt the Compensation to the collectors,) that may involve 
an expenditure of over one hundred dollars, shall be made, 
except in pursuance of a vote of the Board of Directors. 
The Building Committee may, however, make contracts 
for labor, or materials, for a less amount than one hundred 
dollars, (without a previous vote of the Board,) provided 
that the aggregate of all such contracts by the Committee, 
without a previous vote of the Board, shall not exceed the 
sum of three hundred dollars in any one month ; and all 
such contracts shall be reported to the Board at its next 
meeting after their being made, and shall be noted on the 
Minutes. 

All contracts made by or in behalf of this Association, 
shall be in writing, under the Corporate Seal of the Asso- 
ciation, signed by the President, or, in case of his absence 
or inability to act, or of a vacancy in that office, by the 
Vice-President, attested by the Recording Secretary, and 
endorsed " approved," and signed by the Chairman and one 
other member of the Building Committee. 



XIX. 

Treasurer's The Treasurer shall have the custody of all moneys be- 

duties. _ '' •' 

longing to the Association, which moneys he shall keep 
deposited in such Bank or Trust Company in the County 



BY-LAWS. 55 

of Kings, as shall be selected by the Finance Committee, 
in the name of " The Martyr Monument Association," 
subject to draft by the Treasurer of the said Association for 
the time being. He shall pay no money, and shall draw 
no draft upon any Bank or Trust Company in which the 
moneys of the Association shall be deposited, except upon 
a warrant or requisition drawn to the order of the party to 
whom said payment is intended to be made, specifying in 
general terms the object of the appropriation, and signed 
by the President, (or, in case of his absence or inability to 
act, or of a vacancy in that office, by the Vice-President,) 
and by the Recording Secretary, and countersigned by the 
Chairman and one other member of the Building Commit- 
tee ; or, in case th6 payment be intended for the compen- 
sation of any collector, agent, or officer of the Association, 
or for the current or incidental expenses of the Associa- 
tion, then such warrant or requisition shall specify such 
fact, and be countersigned by the Chairman and one other 
member of the Finance Committee. 

XX. 

The Treasurer shall keep accurate accounts of all his Treasurer o 

*■ make re- 

receipts and disbursements, and shall preserve all vouchers p""^' 
relating to such receipts and disbursements, and shall pre- 
sent to the Board of Directors, at each monthly meeting, 
a statement of the amount in the Treasury ; and shall, on 
the first Tuesday of September, in each year, and as often as 
required by a vote of the Board, present a full and de. 
tailed statement, in writing, of all receipts and disburse- 
ments, and of all the monied transactions of the Associa- 
tion, since the preceding annual report, exhibiting the actual 
condition of the Treasury, with a particular statement of 



56 



BY-LAWS. 



all the money, property, and efFects of the Association in 
his hands, or under his custody. 

XXI. 

Secretary's ^hc Recopdiug Secretary shall keep the minutes of the 

duties. , . r 1 T-i 

proceedings of the Board of Directors, causing them to be 
fairly engrossed in a book kept for the purpose, signed or 
certified by the President, Vice-President, or Chairman, 
pro tempore. He shall, in writing, notify the Directors of 
all meetings of the Board, at least two days before such 
meeting, and shall issue notices for all extraordinary 
meetings when required, in writing, to do so by the Presi- 
dent, or any three Directors. He shall have the custody 
and charge of the Corporate Seal, and of all the books, 
papers, correspondence, contracts, deeds, and documents 
belonging to the Association ; and he shall assist all the 
committees, and shall attend and act as Secretary of the 
Finance Committee, and (generally) perform all such duties 
as shall from time to time be charged upon him by an order 
or resolution of the Board. He shall keep a book, in which 
he shall enter, in alphabetical order, the names of all con- 
tributors to the Association, specifying the amount of the 
contribution, the name of the Agent, Collector, or Director 
through whom received, and the date when actually re- 
ceived into the Treasury — which book shall, at all times, 
be open to the inspection of any Director or officer, and 
also of any contributor to the Association. He shall also 
keep general books of account of all the monied transac- 
tions of the Association, which shall at all times be open to 
the inspection of any Director. 



BY-LAWS. 57 



XXII. 



The Corresponding Secretary shall conduct the corres- correspond- 
pondence of the Board, under the inspection of the Presi- ''^'^ ^"*^*^^- 
dent. 



XXIII. 

The Collectors or Agents of the Association, (if any,) collectors' _ 
shall keep regular accounts, in such form and manner as ^"d"*^^^"'' 
the Finance Committee shall, from time to time, direct, of 
all moneys collected by them, with the names of the con- 
tributors ; and shall give receipts in such form as the said 
Committee shall in like manner direct, to all such contri- 
butors ; and, generally, shall be under the direction of the 
Finance Committee. 



XXIV. 



The Corporate Seal shall not be affixed to any docu- Corporate 

Seal 

ment whatever, in behalf of the Association, except by the 
President ; or, in case of his absence or inability to act, or 
of a vacancy in that office, by the Vice-President, and by 
special resolution of this Board. 

XXV. 

No repeal, alteration, or amendment of these By-laws Alteration of 
shall be made, except at a meeting at which a majority of 
all the then existing Directors shall be present, nor unless 
at least five Directors vote in favor thereof. 

All propositions for the repeal, alteration, or amendment 
of the By-laws, shall be submitted in writing, and entered 



58 BY-LAWS. 

upon the minutes ; and shall lie over for consideration until 
the then next stated meeting of the Board, unless, by an 
unanimous vote, (there being fourteen Directors present,) the 
Board shall determine to proceed immediately to the consid- 
eration thereof. The vote upon every question for a re- 
peal, alteration or amendment of the By-laws, shall be taken 
by ayes and noes, and entered upon the minutes. 



C0 W^0mB0e6u t\h m^ d^nu: 

In King's County, a movement lias begun, designed 
to secure the erection of a suitable monument to the 
heroes who suffered and died, during our Revolutionary 
struggle, victims to British cruelty, in the Prison-Ships 
in the Wallabout Bay. Information of its character, 
the facts upon which it is based, the organization in 
which it has resulted, and the rules and regulations 
adopted to govern in prosecuting to completion the 
intended object, are presented and indicated, sufficiently 
for the understanding of the wise-hearted, in the pre- 
ceding pages. 

It remains for the Finance Committee, upon whom 
has been devolved the raising of the necessary funds, 
to invite to the object the attention of those whom 
they would specially interest in it, and by whom it is 
proposed it shall be achieved, and to secure their effi- 
cient co-operation, in giving and doing, to accomplish 
the great and glorious undertaking. 

In pursuit of their duty, that Committee desire to be 
considered as present to you in these words, soliciting 
you to give, each one according to his ability, and to 
induce others to do the same, that to us may be the 
satisfaction, and belong the honor, by " memorial trib- 
ute," of wiping from our country the disgrace of dis- 



Aiia 



60 

honoring, by indifference, the aslies and the memories of 
that great company — in number equal to all who else- 
where died during the whole revolutionary contest — 

* * * "the royal and the brave, who lie 
In the blank earth, neglected and forlorn" — 

by whom, in their measure, we have the riches and 
the glory of our free inheritance. "What your keart 
may find to do, that the Committee pray you to 
do at once, remitting all contributions, in the name 
of the donors, to the Treasurer of the Board of Direc- 
tors, through the Recording Secretary, assurance 
being hereby given that if, from insufficiency of funds, 
the proposed work should not proceed, the money 
forwarded shall be faithfully returned to the sources 
from which it may have come — an alternative, the 
necessity for which, it is our confidence, Americans 
will not permit. Fifty thousand dollars is the least 
expenditure contemplated ; seventy-five thousand, it is 
hoped, will be contributed, that the monument, be- 
neath which, whatever time and decay, waste and 
sacrileo"e have spared of those unnumbered worthies, 
shall be deposited, may be worthy of the object and of us. 
Yom's faithfully, 

ISAAC H. SMITH, 
WM. H. RICHARDS, 
ROBERT C. MORRIS, 

Finance Committee. 

Brooklyn, L. I., May 2, 1855. 



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